Calendar of Events

The Appalachian Arts Craft Center in Norris will hold its Fall Porch Sale starting Thursday, October 6, and running for about two weeks. The Porch Sale features outdated stock, seconds, student crafts and unjuried work by members of the Craft Center. It’s an excellent time to get great deals. There will also be baked goods for sale.

The Appalachian Arts Craft Center is a nonprofit center that has been fulfilling its mission by promoting traditional artists and crafts in the East Tennessee area for 40 years. Currently the center has about 70 crafters who sell in the shop.

Appalachian Arts Craft Center: 2716 Andersonville Highway, Clinton, TN. Hours: M-Sa 10-6, Su 1-5. Information: 865-494-9854, www.appalachianarts.net

Knoxville’s largest Halloween event features 12 nights of safe and not-too-scary fun scheduled over three weekends; Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 6-9, and continuing Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 13-16 and Oct. 20-23, from 5:30-8:00 p.m. each evening.

BOO! at the Zoo, a Halloween tradition for 30 years, is a family event featuring trick-or-treating through the zoo along the BOO! Trail, the Chick-fil-A Monster Mash tent with fun that’s perfect for preschool and elementary-aged event-goers, friendly costumed characters and entertainers throughout the zoo, and the only “haunted” carousel in East Tennessee, the Scary-Go-Round. (How can you tell it’s haunted? It goes backwards, of course.)

Knoxville Zoo, 3500 Knoxville Zoo Drive, Knoxville, TN 37914. Open every day except Christmas. Information & tickets: 865-637-5331, www.knoxville-zoo.org

Recent works by painter Brenda Mills and clay sculptor Karen Kyte will be on display at the Art Market Gallery. An opening reception for the featured artists will begin at 5:30 p.m., October 7, during Downtown Knoxville’s monthly First Friday Art Walk, with complimentary refreshments, and music performed by John Kueny.

Brenda Mills is a water-media painter and pastel artist with a Cum Laude BFA from the University of Tennessee. A self-described “country girl” originally from Kingsport, Tennessee now residing in Knoxville, Brenda has won many national and regional awards. Her work was most recently accepted into the Tennessee Watercolor Society's 35th Juried Exhibition. When painting in watermedia, Brenda uses liquid acrylics, mainly for their intense color and glazability. Trained as a printmaker in college, she begins her paintings on glass, printing the image onto paper or yupo, a tree-free synthetic alternative to traditional art paper. Then she proceeds to manipulate the paint. “I love the element of surprise and the accidents that occur when painting on glass and printing my images.”

Karyn Kyte began sculpting as a child, using “mud pies” as her medium; however, her real passion for art came about while she was studying Medical Technology in college and then took a painting class. Soon, her interests moved back to clay, and she changed her major to Fine Arts. Karyn is a sculptor whose creations are spontaneous. When she sees a lump of clay, images start to form in that lump, willing itself into a certain form. Her pieces are inspired by her love of nature, and she uses shape, color, and movement to honor Earth and all its creatures. She tries to bring awareness to the fragility of Earth and of man’s impact on it through her art. Not only is sculpting Karyn’s way of showing gratitude to nature, to her, art is a way of seeing, being, and thinking. As she states, “I feel like the guy in Close Encounters making the lumps of clay into Devils Tower, not knowing why, just knowing he must.” Karyn received her Bachelor of Science from the University of South Dakota.

Art Market Gallery, 422 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tu-Th & Sa 11-6, Fri 11-9, Su 1-6. Information: 865-525-5265, www.artmarketgallery.net or www.Facebook.com/Art.Market.Gallery

Back for her third showing at The Tomato Head, Ruth Allen skillfully crafts vivid drawings and paintings featuring nature’s flowers and wildlife. Since her last visit from Athens, Georgia, Ruth has had two paintings selected for juried shows and currently has a painting showing at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Her work will be on view at Market Square from October 2 through November 7 and will then move to the West Knoxville Gallery on November 7 through December 5. For more artist information, please visit The Tomato head blog: http://thetomatohead.com/ruth-allen-featured-artist/ or https://www.etsy.com/shop/100tinybluebirds

Tomato Head, 12 Market Square (865-637-4067) and 7240 Kingston Pike, Suite 172 (865-584-1075), in Knoxville.

Don't miss October's amazing exhibit by artist Laura Baisden of Camp Nevernice! Her unique and whimsical letterpress prints are all about the detail in the designs. Every poster is printed one color at a time, one poster at a time. All prints on display are available for purchase.

More events at http://ijams.org/events/. Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Hours: Grounds and trails open during daylight hours. The Visitor Center, including exhibits, gift shop, offices and restrooms is open M-Sat 9-5 and Sun 11-5. Information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

Arthur Miller’s classic “The Crucible” will play in the Clarence Brown Theatre’s Carousel Theatre September 28 – October 16, 2016. A Pay What You Wish Preview performance will be held Wednesday, September 28. The second Preview will take place on Thursday, September 29 and Opening Night will take place on Friday September 30. The Talk Back with the cast will take place Sunday, September 9 following the matinee and the Open Captioned performance is Sunday, September 16 at 2:00 pm. A panel discussion about the impact of the play upon political discussions during its time and today will take place after the Sunday, September 16 matinee.

Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, “The Crucible” is an ageless tale of fear, greed and power written by one of the greatest American playwrights of all time. When teenage girls are discovered trying to conjure spirits, the 17th century town of Salem explodes with accusations of witchcraft. The vicious trials that follow expose a community paralyzed by terror, religious extremism and greed, and a marriage forever changed.

Miller composed “The Crucible” as a dramatization of the Salem Witch Trials, with the witch trials standing in for the anti-Communist “witch-hunts” of the 1950s during the McCarthy era. As with the alleged witches of Salem, suspected Communists were encouraged to confess and identify other Communist sympathizers in order to escape punishment. Many of those accused of Communism suffered loss of employment and/or destruction of their careers; some even suffered imprisonment.

Carousel Theatre, 1714 Andy Holt Ave on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. For information: 865-974-5161, www.clarencebrowntheatre.com. For tickets: 865-974-5161, 865-656-4444, www.knoxvilletickets.com

New and recent work in a variety of media by the three talented co-founders of Striped Light, a Knoxville-based letterpress, graphic design and music recording studio, Bryan Baker, Sarah Shebaro and Jason Boardman. The show will run September 27 through October 21.

Opening reception with the artists on Tuesday, September 27, 2016, 3:00-5:00PM.
Regular gallery hours are Monday Through Friday, 8:00AM-4:00PM.
The Art Department phone number is 865 471 4985.

Warren Art Building, corner of Branner Ave. and S. College Street,
Jefferson City, TN 37760

Stamping out art: Community invited to meet Maryville College artist Dr. Carl Gombert

The excitement is building at the Gallery at Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church for the opening reception for artist Dr. Carl Gombert. The community is invited to meet the artist this Sunday, September 25 at 12:15 pm. Dr. Gombert’s gallery talk will follow the reception. ORUUC is located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge. There is no cost to attend.

Dr. Gombert, who is also a professor of Art at Maryville College, is being commissioned to do a large kaleidoscope mural on a wall of the church Social Hall. His exhibit consists of rubber stamped decorative pieces that have been Gombert’s focus for the last several years. Visually alluring, his creations consist of applying small rubber stamp images that become the building blocks of his work. These varied images are combined into ever widening shapes. The results, in both black and white and color prints, are not always what they seem. “They’re a lot more improvisational than they look. They look like they’re incredibly planned out – all I can really tell you is that they start with an image in the middle that’s vaguely round and then will get bigger and bigger. I just try to make decisions that don’t reckon,” said Dr. Gombert.

Gombert will display his work at the Gallery at ORUUC through October. Hours are Monday – Thursday, 9 am to 3 pm. and Sunday 9:30 am to 1 pm. For more information call ORUUC at (865) 483-6761. To learn more about the artist go on line to http://www.carlgombert.com/.

The sessions are open to any and all who wish to play and are hosted by Vance Thompson. Bring your axe and sit in, or just have a seat on one of the comfy couches and take it all in. It's free either way.

Sundays, 4-6 PM

Located in the Black Box of The Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Knoxville Jazz Orchestra: 865-573-3226, www.knoxjazz.org

In honor of Knoxville’s 225th anniversary, this exhibition explores the city’s heritage as seen through archaeological discoveries in the “Heart of the Valley.” Using historic artifacts unearthed in and around Knoxville, along with historical images, maps, documents, and oral histories, the exhibition tells the story of Knoxville’s development from a frontier settlement to an industrialized city.

Opening reception for members on Fri Sep 16, 5-7 PM.

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9AM-5PM, Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-974-2144, http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu

The Town of Farragut Arts Council presents Janice Valentine as the featured artist for September and October. Located at the Farragut Town Hall, the exhibit features Valentine's framed italic hand calligraphy work.

Valentine has been the owner of the Olde Concord Gallery in historic Concord, Tenn., since 1999. The gallery building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Holding an Associate Degree in Advertising Arts/Graphic Arts from Chattanooga State Community College, Valentine has been a custom picture framer and calligraphy artist since 1984.

Each month, the work of an artist or group of artists is featured in specially designed cases on the second floor of the rotunda in the Farragut Town Hall. For more information about this exhibit or to access a Featured Artist of the Month application, please contact Lauren Cox at lcox@townoffarragut.org or 218-3372 or visit www.townoffarragut.org/artsandculture.

The Farragut Town Hall is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is located at 11408 Municipal Center Drive directly across from the Farragut Branch Post Office.

Please join us for our new exhibition! Opening reception Fri Sep 2, 5-7 PM in the main lobby of the consulate office, which hosts modern art from both established and emerging Polish artists. Please RSVP: drpienkowski@gmail.com or 865-584-4112

Marcin Kowalik’s paintings are dominated by abstract forms and empty spaces while featuring vibrant colors, illusions and a precision of lines and geometric structures. His work is nonanthropocentric – human figures rarely appear, and when they do, they are faceless, devoid of identity. Kowalik’s perception of reality dictates his work. His gaze is the architect’s – registering solids, enriching them with vibranace and a dose of artful spontaneity which gives rise to his novel, uncanny universe. For Kowalik, Picasso is a master of augmented reality. Kowalik is primarily interested in the Cubist period in the work of the Spanish artist, in the composition of spatial forms and their fragmentation. One of Picasso’s most fascinating aspects is his extraordinary inventiveness. Paintings, which appear shattered into prismatic fragments and recomposed without conformity to their initial arrangement, can be ‘read’ from the foreground, followed along the path delineated by the painter and, suddenly, apprehended not from the front, but sidewise.

In 1944, Pablo Picasso joined the Communist Party. It seems to have provided him with a model of victory and strength which he begins to identify with the Communists. His joining the Party has obvious roots in his painting, which he considered to be more than a mere source of pleasure. Line and color were his arms, which he wielded in his revolutionary fight. He confided in Communism, enchanted with the specious beauty of its motivating ideals, but was even more partial to the company he could find in its circles. The stage in the life of the celebrated cubist sparked Marcin Kowalik’s new cycle. The cycle on a (wo)man at work. Each of the thirty canvases represents a person with their occupational attribute. The different quality of the paintings in “A Tale of the Working (Wo)Man” cycle arises from the overload of minimalism, the pinnacle of which was reached by Kowalik in his work on “Convergents”, one of his most recent projects.

Here, he has sought chaos – introduced into his art by people, as various and volatile as the nature of painting. Despite his desire to renounce his creative asceticism, Kowalik’s human is still confined by the minimalist formal limits. To demonstrate a human form, it is sufficent to simply sketch an eye, the shape of a head and, immediately, a face outline becomes recognizable. This is the machination of the human mind – symmetrical points are sufficient for our imagination to fill in the missing parts. Apparently, the human has finally moved to the center of the young painter’s field of interest. However, these are mere appearances. Kowalik does not stray far from home and attempts to misplace the human figure, offering its simplest possible representation. He tells the tale of a human, but his tale is extremely complex and multi-faceted. He posed the challenge and has risen to it himself – undertaking the effort of organizing the experiment. He invited over a dozen of amateur painters to cooperation on committing to canvas their image of an occupation, inspired by the output of the author of “The Weeping Woman”. Website: www.kowalik.art.pl

Viewing hours M-F 8-5, Sat 8-11:30 AM. At the Center for Polish Culture | Pienkow Art Gallery, 7417 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. http://www.consulpoland.com/index.php/center-of-polish-culture/